The present study investigated how type of interaction between groups affects intergroup hostility and how this intergroup hostility may be reduced. In the first phase of the study groups were led to believe that they were either competing, cooperating, or having no interaction with a second group. The results indicated that competition led to the greatest intergroup hositility while cooperation between groups led to the greatest intergroup attraction. In the second phase of the study, the two groups were combined to work on a series of superordinate goals. They received feedback that their combined effort had either succeeded or failed in obtaining the superordinate goal. Intergroup attraction scores taken after this stage of the study showed that in groups that had previously competed, failure on the superordinate tasks increased intergroup hostility while success of the combined tasks reduced hostility. However, for groups that had previously cooperated, failure on the superordinate tasks reduced intergroup hostility to a greater degree than did success on the combined effort. The results were interpreted as showing that both previous interaction and success of combined effort are important variables in determining when working on superordinate goals will reduce intergroup hostility. (Author)

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